Gophers Exhibition Game - MSU

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FreeFall

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I'm surprised nobody is providing feedback to the game...

Exhibition, but saw some pretty positive stuff tonight
 






FreeFall said:
really liked what i saw from Mo Walker, during his limited play
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Didn't tell us much. Give us some real info..like "Mo is 300 pounds of unleashed fury that will remind us of the late Tractor Traylor from Michigan State."
 


I'll chime in with pretty much the same stuff I said in the Gopher All-Access thread:

The team looked good, though it's pretty tough to tell against such terrible competition. Andre sat out most of the first half after picking up two quick (and pretty sloppy) fouls. Maverick played a lot of PG in the first half, along with Welch. Coleman was the leading scorer, as Doc mentioned, and got most (all?) of his points in the paint. Quite a few fast break points for him, but a fair amount of pretty nice slashing moves. He seemed to have great body control and was really effective against a slower MSUM team. I thought Mo looked great, especially after being out so long. He has a great touch on his post moves, to the point where I'd say he may become most polished offensive big man the Gophers have had in quite a while. I am really looking forward to seeing more of him. Trevor looked comfortable with his movement, which was encouraging to see. He was cutting and jumping like nothing was wrong, and had a couple big rebounds and a few nice post plays. Rodney also looked pretty good, but again, I think it was mainly MSUM being way overmatched. Buggs got minimal time, but looked solid enough. The only player that sort of disappointed me was Oto Osenieks. He made a couple pretty terrible passes, and just looked a bit flustered (which is something it seemed like he struggled with last year, too). He hit a couple 3s, but his first was a "hit every part of the basket until it finally drops in" sort of shot. I had really high hopes for him, and he has yet to show much in the way of brilliance. Though I do have to keep reminding myself that he's only a RS Sophomore and he has plenty of time to become a big-time player.

Turnovers were kind of a problem in the first half, but the team seemed to relax a bit and fixed that problem as the game wore on.
 




MinneStoa: That is what I was looking for. Thank you.

On a different thread, lakesgopher had a great thought and shared it with us, regarding Exhibition Games at different sites:


lakesgopher
lakesgopher is online now Senior Member

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I know I'm probably in the minority but I really wish we would play these exhibition games at Mankato, at St. Cloud, at moorhead st, etc. would give. Out state fans a chance to see the big boys play close to their homes and maybe spark additional interest in the U. I grew up near Detroit lakes with a single mom and she never had the time or extra money to take us to gopher games. But if they would have played @ moorhead, etc I'm sure she would have taken us.

I just wouldn't want us to play schools outside of Minnesota, I'm an isolationist



Nothing would increase Gopher Interest out here in the Hinterland than bring the product to us, let us see them.
 

I didn't think Oto looked that bad. He looked a lot quicker in shooting the 3. Mo did look good, but they were pretty small. I do think Mo needs to work harder on defense however. Had a bad reach-in foul and another time a guy went right by him when he didn't move his feet again. He sure has some skills to go with his size though.

Joe really attacked the basket. It was good to see Rodney also work in close. Seemed aggressive going to the basket even in the short time he played with Trevor. Didn't drift outside like he did at times last year. Trevor showed some of his old explosiveness. Maverick and Welch looked the same I thought. Ingram played quite a bit and is starting to grow on me. Seems to do a little bit of everything. The Hollins twins will be fine. Buggs certainly looks like a ball player--lean and long and lost at times. All in all, they looked solid but the Mavericks are pretty poor. Liked the new scoreboard.
 

I emailed Teague and tubby help me out and send an email. A rotating schedule inside Minnesota d2 schools. It would be huge in state!
 




lakesgopher said:
I emailed Teague and tubby help me out and send an email. A rotating schedule inside Minnesota d2 schools. It would be huge in state!
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I do not have any email addresses for Teague and/or Tubby. If you have them, please share them with me, and I will email them.

Thanks.
 

Mulligan said:
I didn't think Oto looked that bad. He looked a lot quicker in shooting the 3. Mo did look good, but they were pretty small. I do think Mo needs to work harder on defense however. Had a bad reach-in foul and another time a guy went right by him when he didn't move his feet again. He sure has some skills to go with his size though.

Joe really attacked the basket. It was good to see Rodney also work in close. Seemed aggressive going to the basket even in the short time he played with Trevor. Didn't drift outside like he did at times last year. Trevor showed some of his old explosiveness. Maverick and Welch looked the same I thought. Ingram played quite a bit and is starting to grow on me. Seems to do a little bit of everything. The Hollins twins will be fine. Buggs certainly looks like a ball player--lean and long and lost at times. All in all, they looked solid but the Mavericks are pretty poor. Liked the new scoreboard.
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I disagree about Welch. He looks much slimmer (read somewhere he lost 15-20lbs), and appeared quicker. He may play a key role as the backup point and 2.
 



doubt the exhibitions will happen as the school doesn't want to give up the extra dollars, but since there are four d1 schools in the dakotas it would be fun if the gophers played all four and one of the games was a road game, NDSU and SDSU are certainly in the same league as St.Joes and Colorado State IMHO. Fargo is literally on the boarder Brookings isn't to far. Grand Forks they could play the game in the Ralph. USD plays in the dakota dome, but sioux falls isn't too far away where the summit league has its tournament.
 

bemidjigopher said:
doubt the exhibitions will happen as the school doesn't want to give up the extra dollars, but since there are four d1 schools in the dakotas it would be fun if the gophers played all four and one of the games was a road game, NDSU and SDSU are certainly in the same league as St.Joes and Colorado State IMHO. Fargo is literally on the boarder Brookings isn't to far. Grand Forks they could play the game in the Ralph. USD plays in the dakota dome, but sioux falls isn't too far away where the summit league has its tournament.
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Id be really surprised if we make significant money from exhibition games vs d2 schools. I have no interest in playing the Dakota schools whether its home or away. I don't want to help them out, we gain nothing from it, and those Dakota fans are the worst I have ever met, including Iowa and badger fans!
 


I see that the three-point defense is already in mid-season form.
 


Does it bother anyone else that Dre only played 5 min in the first half b/c of foul trouble? Do we really think he's going to foul out against them? And if he does, is that a big deal? Wouldn't we rather have him play more minutes and risk fouling out than sit on the bench to "save" him?

I wasn't there so I'm wondering if anyone can fill me in on how we only outrebounded by 6 when we weren't the ones missing all the shots and we weren't exactly playing a huge/good team. Thanks.
 

Dr.Don said:
Didn't tell us much. Give us some real info..like "Mo is 300 pounds of unleashed fury that will remind us of the late Tractor Traylor from Michigan State."
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The late Tractor Traylor went to Michigan. You might have been thinking of Zach Randolph?
 

underground629 said:
Does it bother anyone else that Dre only played 5 min in the first half b/c of foul trouble? Do we really think he's going to foul out against them? And if he does, is that a big deal? Wouldn't we rather have him play more minutes and risk fouling out than sit on the bench to "save" him?

I wasn't there so I'm wondering if anyone can fill me in on how we only outrebounded by 6 when we weren't the ones missing all the shots and we weren't exactly playing a huge/good team. Thanks.
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That is what Tubby always does if a player gets 2 fouls in the first half. Yeah it was an exhibition game, but it was most likely a "lesson" to Dre not to pick up early ticky tack fouls.
 

My primary observation. Other than Mo, the Gophers look sleek. Players look in great shape. Welch, especially, looks like he's worked hard on his body. Understanding who the competition was last night, I don't think the Gophers are going to get pushed around. They "look like" a Big Ten basketball team.
 


SelectionSunday said:
My primary observation. Other than Mo, the Gophers look sleek. Players look in great shape. Welch, especially, looks like he's worked hard on his body. Understanding who the competition was last night, I don't think the Gophers are going to get pushed around. They "look like" a Big Ten basketball team.
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Only seeing highlights and short clips, that's something I noticed. This team definitely improved physically from last year. Guys just look stronger, good to see the offseason worked well. Hopefully skills have improved just as much.
 

The Gophers looked good but not great. Getting out on shooters remains an issue, and I just don't see that issue going away considering the ***ing ball-line defense, so I guess we're just going to have to get used to it. Early in the first half it looked like they were in a simple vanilla man-to-man, but once they switched out of it, it was bombs away for MSU.

Mo, Rodney and Trevor were able to get inside at will, and it wasn't much of a test from that standpoint. Mo has such good footwork - it's going to be hard to keep him out of the starting lineup. Elliott will be a better fit coming off the bench IMO, because of the energy he brings.

Austin is such a smart player and arguably the only one who's mastered the ***ing ball-line defense. He was constantly in the passing lanes.

If Maverick is really a Big Ten caliber player, he would be able to finish around the hoop against a D2 team. He is not and did not.

Before the trade deadline, we should switch out Oto for Zach whatshisname from MSU. Oto needs to become good at something and soon.

A couple bad turnovers from Welch. I keep thinking that he's a confidence boost away from being a key contributor, which he was at certain points last year.

I really, really, really like the look of Buggs. He didn't get enough minutes to stretch his wings, but he looks smooth and confident and looks like he knows what he's doing out there. I think he'll make some plays for us this year if he gets opportunities.
 

I wasn't able to catch the game so I truly appreciate all of the analysis from you guys. I've got my DVR set for Monday though, can't wait to see what the guys looked like with my own eyes.
 

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